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Nikolai Gogol

Dead Souls

Dead Souls is Nikolai Gogol’s last novel, and follows the tale of Pavel Chichikov, a down-on-his-luck gentleman determined to improve his lot in life. The story charts his scheme to purchase dead souls—the titles of deceased serfs—from wealthy landowners.
The novel’s satirical take on the state of Russian society at the time leads Chichikov into increasingly difficult circumstances, in his attempts to cheat the both the system and the cavalcade of townspeople he meets along the way.
Originally planned as a trilogy, Gogol apparently only completed the first two parts, and destroyed the latter half of the second part before his death. The novel as it stands ends in mid sentence but is regarded as complete.
529 printed pages
Have you already read it? How did you like it?
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Impressions

  • Heine Melkevikshared an impression8 years ago
    👍Worth reading
    🎯Worthwhile
    🚀Unputdownable

    The masterpiece of Gogol - until 90% into the book it is truly amazing and then the growing lunacy of Gogol can be seen and the book fall a bit apart.

  • Leenashared an impression3 years ago
    👍Worth reading

Quotes

  • rebeklyhas quoted5 months ago
    There­fore take unto your­self what­so­ever task you may, and do it as though you were do­ing it, not unto man, but unto God. Even though to your lot there should fall but the clean­ing of a floor, clean that floor as though it were be­ing cleaned for Him alone. And thence at least this good you will reap: that there will re­main to you no time for what is evil—for card play­ing, for feast­ing, for all the life of this gay world.
  • rebeklyhas quoted5 months ago
    In­struc­tion can be im­par­ted to chil­dren only through the me­dium of ex­ample; and would a life like yours fur­nish them with a prof­it­able ex­ample—a life which has been spent in idle­ness and the play­ing of cards?
  • rebeklyhas quoted5 months ago
    “But how do you pro­pose to live without work­ing? How can a man like you ex­ist without a post or a po­s­i­tion of any kind? Look around you at the works of God. Everything has its proper func­tion, and pur­sues its proper course. Even a stone can be used for one pur­pose or an­other. How, then, can it be right for a man who is a think­ing be­ing to re­main a drone?”

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